


New/Game Order

by Everdistant



Category: New Game! (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/F, Gen, fate/grand order is a major plot element but only the actual game not the plot of fate/grand order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 10:25:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11849637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everdistant/pseuds/Everdistant
Summary: Kou gets contacted to draw art for one of the biggest mobile games in Japan. Aoba does too, somehow.





	New/Game Order

**Author's Note:**

> I just kinda word-doodled this out! Fic assumes some familiarity with fate/grand order, but just like, the vague concept of it existing. bebop around the grand order wiki for two minutes and you'll be fine.

"Yeah, quick question - what's a craft essence?"

"Oh, those little equip things with the art - you know, like a guy drinking wine or whatever. They've got nice pictures sometimes, but nobody really pays them much mind?"

"Cool. Second question: What's a servant?"

"You philistine!"

Aoba winces over the noise. Even as she tries to work, all she can hear is Hajime, trying to explain the plot of a thirteen year old visual novel to a bored out of her skull Kou. That thing's nearly as old as she is, Aoba can't help but think - and Hajime isn't much older than her. She supposes properties do stay relevant for a while? At least these days.

She's somewhat familiar with what the two of them are discussing. Servants, Craft Essences - it's that Fate something or other game. She's played it some? There was a big anniversary event recently, and she even put in a few hundred yen for a guaranteed five star. She got some old man that Hajime was very impressed and charmed by. It was kind of fun, but she doesn't play mobile games that much - call her a diehard, but she's always stuck by her console RPGs.

"Is Yagami-san going to draw something for that Fate game?" She breaks into the conversation midway through Hajime trying to explain why an Archer would use swords, wheeling her desk chair over to Kou's side of the office. Hajime and Kou glance over at her as one. Hajime looks embarrassed. Kou looks normal.

"Yeah, they got in contact with the offices. They'll pay, natch, and it's good exposure, so..." Kou chews on her tablet pen, then shrugs. "They already have a design in mind, though, so it isn't that fun. I get to design a few alternate outfits or something, though.

"Ascensions!" Hajime breaks in, before Aoba can even congratulate Kou. "When you level up your servant enough, they get new clothes!"

"Is that in the original novel, or something they made up so you had to grind to see King Arthur's boobs?" Kou says as she drags her pen in a lazy circle along her table, doodling.

"... nnnnghhhhhhhey, Arturia actually gets more clothes when you level her up!"

"And Arturia in a bikini?"

"She gets that cool jacket thing actually!"

"And evil Arturia?"

".... nnnghey, tell Aoba the good news!" Hajime slams the brakes on that topic, looking back over her shoulder at Aoba. Aoba suddenly feels put on the spot. "That wasn't the good news?"

"Well, it's part of the good news. They want you to draw a craft essence, since they went to the trouble of working stuff out with Shizuku anyway," Kou shrugs again. Aoba follows the motion with her eyes. Mostly because she has no idea what else to do with them. Because she's trying to process what she's just been told.

"They want..." Aoba trails off, pointing a finger up at herself. Kou nods. Aoba moves her finger, randomly, to Hajime. Kou shakes her head. Back to herself. Kou and Hajime both nod.

"Uwehhhh!?!?"

\---

"H, how many players does that game have again, Hajime-san..."

"Uh, they had that nine million players event a few months back? So probably around nine and a half? Oh, and there's the Chinese, Taiwanese, and American servers... Plus some people download it via third party apps... then again, some people have multiple accounts..." Hajime's rambling, ticking on and off of her fingers as she tries to math things out.

"... Maybe twelve or thirteen million?"

"I'm gonna die!" Aoba whines, face thumping into her desk. Kou's hard at work behind hers, the slight wall in the office separating Aoba from her. The good news - if there was any - was that the company caught them between work, so this wouldn't take any time away from development of a game. And they wouldn't have to turn it down because of other obligations.

The bad news was, Aoba had no excuse to turn it down. And she didn't want to! She was - honored, amazed, and thrilled. Hajime's been telling her what artists have worked on the game, and they're names she recognizes, people who have worked on huge franchises. People from games she grew up playing! She'd played Valkyria Chronicles when she was around ten or eleven, after all. (Even if googling that artist's name these days is. Mm.)

But that's the issue. Does she deserve to work with those people? Sure, it wasn't in a direct capacity, but...

"You'll be fine, Aoba! Probably! I mean, they hire totally rando pixiv artists to do Craft Essences, people forget about them if the effect is bad. Besides, they told you what they wanted, right?"

"Uhm..." Aoba rummaged around on her desk, loose paper shifting this way and that until she found the loose piece of paper she was actually working for. The, uh, paperwork? She'd gotten from Shizuku's office.

"Let's see... 'Scathach patting Mordred on the head.' Who are those two? There's some reference pictures here, but..."

"Ooh, they've got kind of a master/student thing going on! Sort of? It's mostly just a few lines in one event. But Mordred's kind of punky, and Scathach's the cool and collected teacher type. Mordred's cute, and you're good at cute! And you're good at teachers! Probably!"

Aoba wonders if she's ever drawn a teacher in her life - maybe a background NPC? But either way, Hajime's showing her even more reference pictures on her phone. At some point, Aoba tunes out the chatter about their tragic backstories.. All she can focus on is the designs - clothes, hair, faces. What those things say about their personalities.

\---

At some point the work's done. Aoba doesn't even know when, all she knows is that the work's *done*. The drawing's complete. She'd had to ask Hajime for help, more than once, and there'd been a few calls to a very disinterested representative of the mobile game company, but it's done. Even their sluggish replies to her email requests for clarification couldn't stop her! She's so proud that she almost wants to collapse beneath her desk like Kou would, but instead she does something even more satisfying.

"Yagami-san, are you done with yours?" Aoba asks as she peeks her head out around the corner, peering over Kou's desk. Kou isn't wearing pants, which is usually a sign that work has gone well, and she beckons Aoba closer with the back of her hand.

"Yeah," she grunts, twirling a pen between her fingers before jabbing it down on the paper. There's the concept sketch, a young boy with a sword and spiky purple hair. She gets why Kou was hired, considering the Fairy Story protagonists.

And on the screen, of course, is the finished products - three standing poses with various outfit differences, and one actual dynamic piece of art. The boy with his back to the viewer, looking over his shoulder as if inviting them to go on a journey with him. It's so nice that Aoba could see it being on the cover of Fairy Story 4, and she's almost sad that the framing is being used for a game that isn't even theirs.

"He looks really nice! Did they say if he was going to be rare? If he's one of those characters you can get for free that doesn't do much, I'll be really mad..."

Kou scratches the back of her neck with her pen, "I think they said four star? And Hajime said it went up to five. So like, you gotta cough up, but you don't gotta spend too much, I guess."

"That means I might be able to get him! I really hope I do, Yagami-san!" Aoba coos, still taking in the art on the screen - when Kou reaches to tab out of the window, Aoba gives her a look that tells her to stay. Then takes in the art a little longer.

After a solid minute of Aoba looking Kou's work up and down, as if it might suddenly turn into animation, Kou finally breaks the silence. "Hey, how'd yours turn out?"

"Oh, I..." Aoba deflates, giggling nervously as she shows the sketch to Kou. Kou looks like she's about to comment on it, but Aoba puts it behind her back again. More giggling.

"I didn't - I mean, it came out fine, but it's... not that important, right? Everyone's going to be talking about whether they got the character you did the art for, not..." Aoba trails off. Biting her lip, she bows her head to Kou, quickly takes a step back. "I think I'll do a few finishing touches on it then head home," she says, then slips out of Kou's sight even as Kou starts to reach her hand out to her.

\----

"Aaaaand the patch is... done!" Hajime chirps, bouncing in her seat. It's just the three of them in the break room, Kou and Aoba and Hajime. Hifumi and Yun had both bowed out, Yun citing lack of interest and Hifumi citing a desire not to somehow 'curse' her own rolls.

There's a few bags of chips on the table, a beer for Kou, and a juicebox for Aoba. Aoba sips on it nervously as Hajime starts the game, clicks through a few popups, and heads straight to the summoning screen.

"Five star Sita, Five Star Drake Alter, aaand... four star Fergus Lily! SR Saber! See, Kou?"

"Hey, you're pointing at the redhead and the evil pirate. Don't forget who we're trying to get here."

"... The evil pirate?"

Kou none too gently bumps her beer can into the back of Hajime's head, to the sound of Aoba's giggling. "Oh, I can see my craft essence down in the corner, too!" Aoba chimes in as Hajime...

"Crap, I didn't prepare any catalysts...!" suddenly frowns, glancing around the room for some kind of lifeline. Aoba and Kou share a mystified look.

"Catalysts?" Aoba finally dares to ask. Hajime nods. "Yeah! Uh, if you prepare something related to the servant, or go to some place related to them, you'll definitely roll them! Like, if you were trying to roll Nobunaga, you'd go to Honnouji!"

"If I were Nobunaga, I'd stay really far away from Honnouji, personally," Kou snarks. Hajime doesn't even notice. "Do you two know anything about Fergus?"

"... Fergus is a real guy? I thought they made him up."

"You drew him, you charlatan!"

"He wasn't real... he's from... Irish mythology, I think?" Aoba puts her fingers to her chin, trying to recall where she'd heard the name before. Hajime looks earnestly thankful either way, turning around and leaning in. "Yeah, yeah! Quick, anything else?"

"I think he died in a river...?"

And so, a few minutes later, Hajime returns with a full glass of water, sets it on the table, and sets her phone in front of it, waving her hands over each.

"Is this whole 'catalyst' thing just trying to PTSD them into being summoned? Honnouji for Nobunaga, now water for this poor guy," Kou continues to snark. Hajime continues to ignore her.

"Oh Fergus... sorry about... uh... dying in a river. Did he drown?"

"I think someone he'd fought before ambushed him while he was bathing?"

"Man, that has to suck," Hajime says with a weird amount of sympathy, then claps her hands together and sits back down. The three of them lean in together as Hajime presses down on the button for ten attempts, oohing over the flashy summoning animations.

\---

"I didn't get hiiiiimmmmm..." Hajime whines. Aoba's patting her shoulder while Kou bitterly drinks her beer.

"You got your stupid evil pirate. Be happy about that," Kou shrugs. "Aoba, do you play this game? Maybe you'll get him."

"Uhm, a little! Actually, I probably have some free quartz and stuff since I haven't logged in in a while," Aoba suddenly thinks. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the craft essence she drew as Hajime half-heartedly goes through her loot. She can't help smiling at the sight of it actually in the game, but when she sees Kou following her eyes, she's quick to duck them away. It's a little silly, to be so happy over something so minor. It's just like only drawing background characters, right? Maybe even lamer.

Kou takes another, quiet sip of her beer. "Well, good luck with the... whatever it is that game is. I'm gonna go back to work. You guys got another fifteen minutes," she says, brushing her jeans off as she stands up. She waves over her shoulder, and Hajime sadly waves back.

"... oh, hey, I still got summon tickets," Hajime realizes, once Kou is out of the room.

"Say that sooner!"

\---

Work keeps Aoba on her feet the rest of the day - she finds the time to do a quick ten roll on the game, though. She's incredibly excited when she sees that gold saber card flash on her screen, but at the end of the flash, it's just a white haired man with a scarred chest.

"... Why does Hajime call him Sumanai when his name is Siegfried?" Aoba wonders aloud, then gets back to work, ferrying a few documents between offices and answering questions about smaller projects.

It's a little past actual work hours when she gets back to her desk, and all she has time to do is try and reorganize it. She's about to leave when she hears snoring from Kou's desk, jumps at the sound of it before - of course - realizing that it's Kou herself. She'd gone out at some point, but apparently it hadn't been to go home early.

Aoba turns the corner to find Kou curled up at her desk. She hasn't even bothered to crawl beneath her desk, or take anything off - she's just asleep at her desk. It's odd, since neither of them even had that much work? But Kou's been working so hard these past few months that this dull period could be tense for her. Aoba gets that.

Aoba looks around the offices for a moment before finding something blanket-like, tosses it over Kou's shoulders. Even her phone is still on - oh, wait. It's the game. Had Kou been trying to roll her servant after all?

There's a few discarded google play cards on the desk that say yes - and the fact that the game is on the summoning results screen, Fergus Lily right there. Kou must have finally rolled him and then passed out.

Aoba giggles at the thought. She's familiar enough with the game to tap out of the screen, go to the card screen. She'll leave the game zoomed in on his face, maybe, to make sure Kou remembers she got him when she wakes up. Or to spook her. That gets another quiet giggle out of her.

Only... when she gets to the screen, there's seven copies of Fergus Lily. Even that pirate and that other girl are there. And Kou's account is so new that it's only those and the tutorial freebies. Tilting her head, Aoba taps over to the craft essence screen. Kou had drawn one of those too, hadn't she?

She had, and there's three of those, too.

And, with a shiny NEW under it -

4* Craft Essence, Student & Teacher. Scathach, smirking lightly as she tries to push Mordred's hair back into place. Aoba's art is cute, rounded, but since she was drawing an adult woman she'd done her best not to make her look too cutesy. The end result is that Mordred looks smaller than she probably should be, but considering the other craft essences Hajime showed her, a bit of variation is fine, right?

Also. There's just the one copy of it.

Sleepily, at her side, Kou mumbles - "'s real nice, Aoba... All fluffy n' stuff."

And - yes, Aoba has to agree.

She can only describe the sensation in her chest right now, the sensation her own teacher is giving her, as fluffy.

**Author's Note:**

> hajime kinda took over this fic in the middle, huh
> 
> also, does this qualify as a fix-it fic for fate/grand order by letting Sita and Drake Alter be actual servants?


End file.
